Photos from the past month or so
It seems like I have been out in the back country for a long time this time. Yes, I know there are trail crew people who will stay 4+ months out without ever hiking to the front country, but that life is not for me - I need a shower, to do laundry, to apply for jobs, download the next set of Bible classes, etc., and could not wait to get out by the end of this last hitch.
I am mainly better from my cold - when I hiked in I was probably at 85% with medication, went to about 90-95% with medication for most of the past three weeks, decided to stop taking medication mid last week, and am now at about 97% without medication. I still have a sore throat, with some drainage that makes me cough once or twice every few hours, and I blow my nose 2-3 times a day (too much information?) but am generally ok. I considered seeing a doctor, or calling a nurse when I came back out (5 weeks sick and counting!), but figured they would probably just tell me what I already know - I'm on the mend, it's taking forever.
While I was out sick, my boss Isaac hiked over from mobilizing the Kern site to help Christi until I could hike back in. So when I did hike in, Isaac stayed and electrofished with us the next day before hiking out. What a blast it was having Isaac there for an unexpected period of time - and what fun it is to electrofish with two dip-netters! Isaac was also there when we checked a net that we had placed in the small pond of our new lake's outlet stream, and we caught a whopping 98 fish in one net - 98 very nasty, gooey, fish, that I had no problem handling because my sense of smell was still completely gone. :)
Christi hiked out for the weekend, and I stayed in (not wanting to do another 28 miles of hiking in 4 days), thinking I would get some reading and frog surveys in. Unexpectedly I was invited to a trail crew party at the Rae Lakes area, attended by the Rae Lakes trail crew, Charlotte Lake Trail crew, and the rangers from both areas. What I wasn't told was that it was open-mic-night, and everyone brought out their musical instruments and singing voices and poems and jokes and shared around the campfire. I had nothing to share but my elephant/Safeway bag joke, which was okay, but I think I came off as very bookish and boring. Alas.
The next day I was invited to go with some of the party-goers to Dragon Lake, where we flew kites (and got them quite caught in trees), threw rocks in the lake, and watched one of the guys fish. The fishing guy killed his fish by hitting them on the head with his Leatherman, and never did it right the first time - we could hear him go "thunk thunk" with kindof a squish to it - not fun. So they wanted to know how we killed our fish, and if I could demonstrate. So I took the next fish that was caught in my two hands, one hand holding the head, the other grasping the fish behind the gills near the vertebrae, and applied pressure/twisting until I broke the neck - its very fast in small fish, slightly harder in large fish (this one was a large one at 6 inches). Trail crew was impressed. Suddenly I was not so boring anymore.
This past hitch was mainly characterized by the weather, which was cloudy and storm-threatening for most of the hitch, though it only rained with thunder and lightning for two of the days. I very much dislike stormy weather in the Sierras - it makes work pretty miserable or impossible, and all you do is wait for it to go away. I'm waiting for the days when it is warm enough (to an Arizonan) to at least bathe a little in the lakes during the hitch - I'm hoping August. :) A definite plus to being stuck in your tent for 3-4 hours during a thunderstorm in the back country? You get a lot of letters written (seven!), which may not have been written otherwise. Sunsets are also at their best when there are a ton of clouds in the sky.
On our last night in Sixty Lakes Christi and I hiked over to the Rae Lakes Ranger Station and had dinner with the ranger and two of his friends (who had hiked in to visit him). We spent the night in the cabin in the loft, which was pretty cool - my second time spending the night in the new cabin!
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